Hendon earned a trip to Wakefield & Emley in the FA Trophy 4th round with a controversial 2-1 defeat of Heybridge Swifts at Claremont Road on Tuesday night. The result was right, but the manner of the decisive goal was of dubious provenance, a 49th minute penalty coolly converted by Kieran Gallagher.

Following Saturday's game with Hampton, the only Hendon changes were on the substitutes bench, where 18-year-old Steve Weston was promoted from the reserves for the first time and Micky Woolner was back after sitting out Saturday's game with a hamstring strain. A biting cold, difficult wind blowing across the pitch, sprinkled with occasional rain, ruined the game as a spectacle.

Hendon had taken the lead in the 18th minute when Ricci Crace shot just inside Darren Placid's near post following a goalmouth scramble which Eugene Ofori denied by a fine parry from Placid.

Two minutes later, Placid made an awful hash of dealing with Gallagher free-kick and Ofori, following up, knocked home the rebound. The assistant referee, however, ruled that Ofori was in an offisde position when the ball was struck and so went from passively to actively offside when the ball came to him.

Almost immediately Heybridge hit back with an equaliser. A long ball from the right wing hung up in the teeth of the strong wind blowing across the pitch, and Paul Towler mistimed his jump to make a defensive header was adjudged to have pushed Lewis Baillie. Paul ABRAHAMS made no mistake with the spot kick.

This goal gave Heybridge heart at the same time as it knocked Hendon out of their stride. As a result Swifts had the better of the final 20 minutes of the opening half, without ever getting too close to David Hook's goal to taking the lead.

Hendon's winner came 3 minutes into the second half. A through ball invited Crace to run in on goal. Placid was off his line quickly and the goalkeeper did well to block the ball, but his impetus carried him into Crace, who was felled by the challenge.

Referee Carl Couzens (Herts) immediately pointed to the penalty spot, infuriating the Heybridge defenders, two of whom were cautioned for their protests. GALLAGHER stepped up and confidently sent Placid the wrong way with an excellent penalty.

In the 63rd minute, a cross from Paul Yates was dropped by Placid but fell between Crace and Ofori, right at the feet of Michael Dignum, who lashed the ball clear.

The closest Heybridge came to an equaliser came in the 73rd minute when a corner kick was curled into the Hendon penalty area and a header bounced off the crossbar before being hacked away.

In the final 10 minutes Hendon had two loud penalty appeals turned down. First Steve Forbes was obstructed as he charged into the penalty area. If anything, the interference merited an indirect free kick.

Then, in the 85th minute, Dale Binns, on for Gallagher, danced around the back of the Heybridge defence and drilled a low cross towards the near post. David Hadrava tried to hack the ball clear, but sliced it off the arm of Dignum, who was no more than 3 yards away. It was clearly ball to hand, but the defender's arm was slightly away from his body. For some referees that would have been enough to award a penalty, but Mr Couzens made the morally correct decision.

The five minutes of stoppage time played on Hendon's nerves but Heybridge didn't really look like getting another equaliser.

"Whether it is 1-0 or 10-9, the result is more important than the score," said manager Dave Anderson. "I didn't enjoy the game much, but we are through to the next round."